Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-08-28
A PRESIDENTS. ESCAPE.
How Kansas Men Plotted to XIII
Hucha an.

gram 10 the Otur says: JEFFERSON
Davis recent reference to the two at
tempts that were made to assassinate
him when he was President of the
Southern Confederacy was the subject
of interest last Sunday, in group of
army veterans on the piazza of Sara
toga hotel. In the course of the even
ing statement was made by one of
the speakers there, which has never
till now been put in print, about plot
that was once laid to assassinate a
President who is supposed to have
passed through his term of office with
out shadow of danger. Let me quote
his words as nearly as l can recall
them:
'Besides the cases of Garfield and
Lincoln" he said, there was a con-
spiracy against President Lincoln's
predecessor in the White House,
James Buchanan. The plot was
hatched during President Buchanan's
term, in the year 1858, in Kansas,
where l was then serving under the
gallant General Sumner during the
border troubles. You can hardly con-
ceive the intensity of the hatred for
Mr.. Buchanan that was felt by the
Kansas Abolitionists. 1t seethed and
ragged in their breasts, and seemed to
be unquenchable. He was held to
be the author Of all the crimes
charged against the "Border Ruff
fans" and all the bloodshed that
kept the settlers of the newly-opened
territory in an uproar. To hear Gen
eral Jim Lane, who subsequently be-
came senator and committed suicide,
after he had slain his adversary,
Captain jenkins, declaim against Bu-
chanan at the meetings of the armed
squatters, was to have your passions
wrought up to madness. In such a
state of things, as matter of course,
there were desperate men who felt
that if Buchanan could be made away
with, Kansas would fall into the hands
of the Abolitionists. The plot, said,
was hatched in Lawrence. A sum of
money was raised to carry
it out, and a muscular, hard
drinking desperate who was
concerned in it; offered to become the
executioner. In the spring of 1858
this man made trip to Washington
to see the lay of the land,' as it were,
and to prepare for putting into effect
his murderous design. He returned
to Kansas in less than a month and
reported to his associates in the plot
that the job would be an easy one !;
that Buchanan could be reached with
out trouble, as he was in the habit of
lettering in the grounds about the
White House, and that he had seen
in Washington gunsmith's an air
gun which was just the thing
needed, and that he was sure
he could make his escape after the fall
of his victim and get back to Kansas.
He was assured of protection as soon
as he got there, after the execution of
his design. The plot ripened. The
day for the deed was approaching.
The desperate drank heavily as he
bided his time in Lawrence. A slight
incident that came under nv notice,
and few words that l overheard one
day, put me on the scent: and when |
communicated them to General Sum-
ner at Fort Riley l was put on special
duty to keep lookout, and soon found
myself employed as barkeeper for
Winchell's saloon on Main street.
then called Massachusetts street, in
Lawrence. After midnight of one
Saturday the knot of plotters were in
the rear room of that saloon around
bottle of good rye whisky. behind a
locked door. l learned their game,
and on the following Monday threw
up my place as barkeeper. / left
town, The facts were communicated
to the proper quarter and l was as
signed to the duty thus made neces-
sary. Some time in April l
eot information that the desperate
was in Leavenworth. We reached
Washington almost simultaneously.
From that time he was under my eve.
Within two days he visited the old
Germans gun-shop, examined the air
gun which he had previously seen and
which he purchased for $25. 1t was
put in its case and sent to his quarters,
which were within gun-shot of the
grounds of the White House. That
afternoon Mr.. Buchanan was warned,
and that night the man who | had
ascertained had been fugitive from
justice, was arrested upon an
Indictment for a felony he
had committed two years be-
fore in the District of Columbia.
My business was ended. The man
was 8 Q IDLY brought to trial on the
old Indictment, convicted and sem
fenced to four years in the Albany
penitentiary. Before he had served
out his term Mr.. Buchanan had left
the White House. Abraham Lincoln
held the fort, and the country was
under the cloud of war. The man
was a wreck when he came from the
pc nitentiary. He died soon after
ward"
''Why have you never told these
facts before ?" we asked the veteran on
the piazza of the Saratoga hotel when
he had concluded his startling nara
ton.
''For the same reason, perhaps" he
replied, "that Jefferson Davis did not
tell the story of his attempted assass-
ination till now, that l did not see any
use of it. But have all the facts in
writing, and they will some day be
found among my papers, by which
time, it is to be hoped, one ortwo men
yet prominent in Kansas politics, will
have passed from the stage"
James Buchanan, as is we'll known,
was very apprehensive of danger to
his life during the last years OF bis
Presidency. Had Lincoln and Garfield
been more guarded than they were
against danger, they might both have
escaped the fate that overlook them.
The talk among our group and vete-
rams on this subject ran along for
hours, and did not end until we had
some curious facts concerning precau-
tions that have been taken during the
past two years in Washington for
guarding the safety of President Cleve-
land, not only when he is in the White
House itself, but also when he takes
his walks abroad to behold the won
drous works of nature.